Telstra earmarked 1000 sites for the initial trial. Today the company said it would add Wi-Fi to its 80 retail stores later this year.

The existing 1100 hotspots are spread across 250 suburbs and towns, according to Telstra.

"When the full network launches customers who sign up to become a member of the network will have access to more [than] 3500 Telstra built Wi-Fi hotspots, the residential hotspots created by other members and more than 14 million hotspots worldwide," said Gordon Ballantyne, Telstra Retail group executive.

Since November, over 270TB of data has been downloaded using the service, Telstra said.

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